The waterpark you’ve never heard about

SHERIDAN — The mere existence of Splashway Family Waterpark, sitting in farm land that’s miles from a large highway or a large city, is as mysterious as a crop circle and as complicated as crop subsidy.

Splashway is the waterpark you’ve never heard about. Built 11 years ago on the site of an old junk yard, it’s got the only moving parts in a farming community that’s got one foot in its own scrap heap.

But the hundreds of families, crowding the park on another 100-plus degree Southeast Texas day, don’t care about that.

That’s because right now, it’s time to dance.

On the beach of the Splashway’s nicely-appointed wave pool, under the shade of lost palms, two dozen kids and a few hardy adults dance barefoot in white sand trucked in for this purpose. The DJ/lifeguards on the stage have been playing a steady stream of line-dancing classics, and now it’s time for a disco version of the “Hokey Pokey.” Leading the group are Ray the Sunshine and Auddi the Pirate, mascots for this unlikely civic success story.

After the dance, children work up the courage to approach Ray and Auddi and introduce themselves.

It’s a stark contrast to the rest of Sheridan, where a dancing sun and a prancing pirate couldn’t get arrested because there’s no one on the streets to see them. But while this Colorado County hamlet — it’s not even incorporated — struggles to remain viable, the 4.5-acre water park thrives.

“I tell all of my friends about it,” said park guest Shaun Dworaczyk of Katy, a bedroom community west of Houston. “I tell them it’s in the middle of the country. Just drive and you’ll see it. You can’t miss it.”

“You come here and it’s fun,” says Debbie Stern of Needville, a town southwest of Houston. “It’s big enough to be fun, but you don’t get pushed back and forth. And you don’t have to worry about your kids.”

Says general manager Carl Blahuta, who got his start as a teenage life guard: “We are the miracle in the middle of nowhere.”

With thousands of visitors from neighboring communities and the outer fringes of Houston willing to drive through the parched ranch land to get here, it’s an undeniable success.